Hydraulic gate structure



se 't. 22,1936.

c. E. PEARCE HYDRAULIC GATE STRUCTURE I Fiied'Nov; 11, 1952 j 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept. 22, 1936.

C. E. PEARCE HYDRAULIC GATE STRUCTURE Filed Nov. 11, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2" l nfluuunul h l l l IIII llll IIII I l I l hl l zgforces acting upon the gate.

Patented Sept. 22, 1936 PATENT OFFICE HYDRAULIC GATE STRUCTURE Cecil Edward Pearce, Pasadena, Calif., assignor to the city of Pasadena, a municipal corporation of California Application-November 11, 1932, Serial No. 642,216

8 Claims.

My invention relates to hydraulic gates, and has particular reference to traction devices to be employed for supporting and guiding hydraulic gates in their movements toward and. away from closing position.

In the construction of hydraulic gates, particularly gates employed to cut ofi a relatively large water passage, such as in flood outlets on dams, sluices, and in large conduits and water-conducting tunnels, it is necessary to provide a relatively large gate which may be capable of moving readily and which is further capable of seating accurately upon a gate seat when in closed position. When the gate has a relatively large area, great hydraulic pressures are encountered and considerable difficulty is encountered in providing ade-' quate traction devices which will permit facility of movement of the gate and yet provide sum-- the hydraulic cient bearing surface to resist Various traction devices have been suggested for this purpose, as exemplified in the Garbe Patent 966,192, issued August 2nd, 1910, and the Stokes Patent 838,664, issued December 13, 1906 as comprising an endless chain of rollers arranged to be carried by the gate to contact guides or tracks, the endless chain of rollers being adapted t'o'move in the direction of movementof the gate so as to provide a rolling traction device. Such endless chains of rollers form a satisfactory traction device when the gates are to be used in relatively shallow dams in which the gate has but a small amount of movement between its closedrposition and its normal position at the top of the dam. However, in constructions where the dam is of relatively great height requiring a great distance of travel, it is undesirable to permit the gate to be elevated throughout its entire distance of travel upon the endless chain of rollers because of the great amount of Wear which will occur and also because of the fact that in such constructions the water level for a great period of time is so low as to expose the major portion of the track on which the gate operates, and thus allows the accumulation of rust upon them, destroying the desirable smooth traction surface, and adding further to the wear upon v renew r. e

' closed position. 55

Another object of the invention is to provide a gate of the character described with one traction device to be employedfor that portion of the travel of the gate when it is closing off the water opening and is thus under great hydraulic pressure and providing a different traction de- 5 vice for the gate for the other .portions of the travel of the gate.

Another object of the invention is to provide different traction devices for the gate for diiferent portions of its travel and to provide transfer mechanism which will place one of the traction devices out of action and bring the other into action as the gate travels.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from a study of the following specifications, read 1d in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a dam and spillway provided with a gate and traction device as constructed in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a detailed, side elevational view of a gate provided with traction devices in accordance with my invention; and

Figure 3 is a partial, front elevational view of the gate illustrated in Figure 2. 1

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the gate, gate seat, tracks and traction devices employed in the practice of my invention.

Referring to the drawings, I have illustrated 3O in Figure 1 a dam I arranged to store water. The dam is provided with a flood outlet or sluice 2, preferably arranged near the bottom of the dam, or near the bed of the stream controlled. A.

section only of the dam is illustrated in Figure 1,

them'ain wall 3 of the dam being shown as connecting with a buttress 4. I

The upstream end of the sluice 2 is illustrated surrounded by a suitable gate-seat frame 5, the upstream surface. of which constitutes the seat 40 against which a flood gate 6 bears when the gate is in closed position.

By referring particularly to Figure 1, it will be observed that the gate 6 is illustrated in its open or elevated position, the gate being preferably shifted to other positions along the dam so that 551 the gate 6 may be employed to close any one of a number of sluices 2 if it is desired to employ the gate 6 in other positions.

By referring particularly to Figures 2 and 3, it will be observed that the gate is illustrated as having considerable thickness in the direction of flow of the stream. The gate is illustrated as being provided with side plates l l (While only one is shown, it will be understood that there is a side plate upon the opposite side of the gate corresponding to plate I l).

The rear surface I2 of the gate is illustrated as having formed thereon a suitable seating or sealing member 53 which is arranged to contact the seat is formed upon the frame 5 surrounding the sluice. 2 to form therewith a water-tight seat.

From an inspection of Figures 1, 2, and 4, it will be observed that the gate seal l3 and the gate-- frame seat l4 extend at a considerable angle to the vertical so that a substantially vertical travel of the gate will cause the seal and seat to engage each other with a wedge action, thus insuring tight engagement of the same when thegate is lowered into closing position.

The traction devices for guiding and supporting nected by means of links H and arranged to travel in a vertical direction over guides or wheels l8 and I9 at the upper and lower ends of the gate,

respectively.

The guide wheels l8 and R9 are preferably ,mounted upon suitable shafts 26 and 2!, respec-.

tively, projecting outwardly from the side plate i i. Toform a bearing against which the. rollers 56 may bear, a bearing member 22 may be formed upon the side plate 1 I projecting outwardly therefrom to engage one side of the rollers to transfer the thrust of the gate to the rollers.

The rollers are arranged to engage and operate upon a roller track 23 (see Figure 1), which is secured to the face of the dam to a short distance above the sluice opening so that during the lower portion of the travel of the gate to its closing position the entire hydraulic forces exerted upon the gate will be transferred from the gate to the rollers and thus to the roller track, insuring that ample contact and bearing surface wiil be provided to resist the hydraulic pressures exerted upon the gate.

By referring particularly to Figure 1, it will be observed that a second traction means is provided which includes a track 24, also supported in any suitable manner upon the face of the dam, and extending from a position just overlapping the upper end of the roller track to a position sub stantially at the top of the travel of the. gate. The track 2 is arranged to engage a'second set of rollers on the guide, these rollers being preferably a set of wheels 25 mounted upon the gate 6.

In the form of the device illustrated, there are. two of the wheels 25 arranged on each side of the guide, though it will be understood that any number of wheels may be provided. the wheels 25 shall be mounted'upon the shafts 28 and 2 l respectively, which constitute the shafts for the roller wheels I8 and I9.

By referring particularly to Figure 3, it will be The I prefer that "theupper terminus of the track 23 so that as the gate descends from its upper position it will be guided by the track 24 and the rollers 25 until it arrives at the upper end of the roller track 23 at which time the track 23 will engage the endless chain of rollers E5. The lower end 26 of the track 24 is bent rearwardly, as is illustrated at 2'5, while the upper end of the track '23 is bent rearwardly as indicated at 28 so that the angle surfaces of the tracks are presented for ready engagement of the rollers and the wheels, thus effecting ready transfer of the gate from one of the traction devices to the other.

It will be observed from an inspection of Figure 1 that the contact surfaces of the tracks 23 and 24 extend in a plane which forms a slight angle with respect to the vertical so that the normal force of gravity upon the gate will pull the gate into contact with the tracks during the entire opening and closing movement of the gate, thus insuring that the gate will be accurately guided throughout its path by the tracks and the respective sets of rollers engaging the same. At this point it should be observed that the gate seal l3 extends in a plane having a considerable angle with respect to the plane of the tracks and that the gate seat l4 extends at a further angle to the vertical so that the movement of the gate along its track will present oppositely disposed angular contact surfaces for accomplishing the wedge action between the gate and the gate seat as hereinbefore described.

Thus it will be observed that the track 24, though exposed for the major portion of its length to the atmosphere and subject to rust and other surface roughening conditions, will be required to contact only with the wheels 25 and in view of the fact that these wheels are of relatively great diameter the amount of wear upon them in passing over the track, even though the track is roughened, is not disastrous. On the other hand,-the small rollers 16 are brought into action only for a small part of the total travel of the gate and while they are of relatively small diameter, when in operation are required to rotate many times for a relatively small amount of travel, the total distance during which they are required to support the gate is only'a small portion of travel of the gate. Hence there is little wear upon these rollers for each opening and closing movement of the gate.

Moreover, while the water level in the dam may be lowduring a relatively great portion of the time, the roller tracks 23 extend only a short distance, and that distance at the lower end of the dam, so that this track is substantially constantly immersed and subjected to the deteriorating influences thereof.

It will be observed, therefore, that by providing one type of traction device for supporting and guiding the gate through a small portion of its travel as it actually closes the spillway opening, this traction device may be selected to secure the greatest resistance to the effects of the static head of the water and also to the velocity head of the water flowing through the opening, while a second traction device is provided for supporting and guiding the gate toward the remainder of its portion of travel when the velocity head of the water bearing upon the gate is substantially negligible, and thus this latter traction device may be constructed in a much less rugged form.

Moreover the provisions of the two traction devices with the transference of the gate from one to the other permits one of the devices to be constructed with extreme accuracy important in the final closing movement of the gate, while the other may be constructed with less accuracy since considerable variation in the plane of movement of the gate during a major portion of the travel thereon is not detrimental.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to be limited to any of the details of construction shown herein, except as described in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gateseat defining a water passage, a gate for engagement with said seat to close said passage, means defining a path of movement of said gate toward and away from said passage, and traction means for said gate including one traction device for the portion of said path immediately adjacent said seat, and a separate traction device for the remaining portion of said path.

2. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gateseat defining a water passage, a gate for engaging said seat to close said seat to close said passage, means defining a path of travel of said gate toward and away from said seat including one set of bearing members for said gate for the portion of said path immediately adjacent said seat, and a second set of bearing members for said gate for the remaining portions of said path.

3. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gate-seat defining a water passage, a gate for engaging said seat to close said passage, means defining a path of travel of said gate toward and away from portions of said path, and means for transferring said gate from one of said bearing members to the other as said gate moves along its path of travel.

4. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gate-seat defining a-water passage, a gate for engaging said seat to close said passage, means defining a path of travel of said gate toward and away from said seat, traction means for said gate including at least two sets of tracks one extending over a portion of said path immediately adjacent said gate and the other extending over the remaining portion of said path, the adjacent ends of said sets of track overlapping each other, and roller members on said gate for engaging one of said tracks and separate roller members on said gate for engaging the other of said tracks.

5. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gateseat defining a water passage, a gate for engaging said seat to close said passage, means defining a path of travel of said gate toward and away from said seat, traction means for said gate including at least two sets of tracks one extending over a portion of said path immediately adjacent said gate and the other extending over the remaining portion of said path, the adjacent ends of said sets of track overlapping each other, roller memhers on said gate for engaging one of said tracks and separate roller members on said gate for engaging the other of said tracks, an endless chain of rollers for engaging the track adjacent said gate, and separate roller members for engaging the other of said tracks.

6. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gate, a

' water passage to be closed by said gate, means passage of the gate along a portion of said path immediately adjacent said passage and engaging the other of said sets of rollers when the gate is moving along the remaining portions of said path.

7. In a hydraulic gate construction, a gate, a water passage to be closed by said gate, means defining a path of travel for said gate toward and away from said passage, an endless chain of rollers on said gate constituting bearing members therefor, a set of wheels on said gate independent of said rollers also forming bearing members for said gate, and track means extending along said path for engaging one set of endless chain rollers when said gate is immediately adjacent said passage and for engaging one set of said wheels when said gate is moving along the remaining portions of said path.

8. The combination with a deep-water sluice gate supported for raising and lowering by tension members, anti-friction means associated with the gate effective during the actual opening and closing movement, guides for cooperating with said anti-friction means during suchopening and closing movement, and independent supporting means between the gate and the dam for transporting and guiding said gate towards and from the zone of actual closing and opening movement, said independent supporting means being so associated that they will automatically transfer the pressure of said gate from said anti-friction means to said independent supporting means and vice versa at the proper time during the raising and lowering of the gate.

CECIL EDWARD PEARCE. 

